Blogathon Help Needed – Ask me a Question

I’ve spent a little time today working on some preparations for my blogathon and as part of the last two times I’ve done it I’ve asked blog readers for questions for me to answer during the 24 hour blogging frenzy.

So – I’m going to open this post up for questions of a two types (keep in mind that I’ll be posting 100 times over the 24 hours which is once every 14.4 minutes so don’t make them too big):

Blogging Questions

Personal Questions (within reason)

My posts over the day range from the fun to the serious to the bizarre (especially at the end of the 24 hours) to the useful etc etc – so your questions can be anything (have some fun with it if you like). If I use your question you get a free link.

I doubt I’ll be able to answer all of them but this is one way you can help me make the day successful and raise some money for a good cause.

Of course if you ask a question I won’t charge you a donation for an answer but do hope you’ll be willing to contribute something on the day (no pressure!).

I’ve probably got enough ‘blogging’ type questions now (the blogathon usually is much more diverse in terms of topics covered) so if you have any other questions about ‘me’ I’d be happy to take those too.

a.) What are the real benefits of Technorati? I ask because they are very good in putting my posts whenever someone searches for keywords related to my topic but I can see that I get very few or no visitors at all?

b.) Is this reasonable to expect (few to zero visitors) knowing how young my blog is? After following the tips here on promoting a blog, when can I expect reasonable traffic?

I’m the webmaster for Down Syndrome NSW (http://www.dsansw.org.au), a charity organisation. I got involved about 4 years ago after my own daughter was born with DS.

I’ve helped build the website up into a valuable resource with traffic over 1,000 pageviews per day. I’m toying with the idea of moving at least part of the site over to WordPress at some stage, making it easier for other members to post information and giving more of a blog feel to the news, media coverage, new information, and what’s on type pages.

Do you have any ideas for non-profit organisations to make some money out of their web sites or blogs? Obviously we don’t want the site to be littered with animated GIFs and other over-the-top advertising. We also need to be careful with things like AdSense, where we might be perceived as endorsing any products that are advertised on our site. And of course, we don’t want to detract from our message.

I’ve got a weight loss blog (linked above). My traffic has been building slowly, but still isn’t anywhere near the levels I’d like to reach. The blog is barely making any money, and not generating much conversation yet.

My problem is, I’ve already lost over half the weight I set out to lose. That means that in another 4 or 5 months, I’ll be at my target weight and will no longer have stuff to post about.

What can I do to quickly boost traffic before my blog comes to an end?

Or alternatively, what can I post about once I stop losing weight?

Should I take a leaf out of Oprah’s book and just start gaining, then losing, then gaining, then losing weight, thereby ensuring I always have experience with whatever fad diet is current and always have stuff to talk about?

How can a blogger make inroads into the MySpace market like Ask-A-Ninja did? Everyone talks about leveraging MySpace and other Web 2.0 communities to get readers, but I’ve yet to see anyone really discuss the concrete steps to take to do it. Beyond simply creating a profile, what did the successes like Ask-A-Ninja do to get people’s attention, without pissing off the community while doing so?

Thanks,
Robert

Lesodin

Question:

Do you have any tips regarding personal branding? Your blog posts about how to make money directly from you blog, but what about people (like me) trying to make a name for oursselves in our field.

I could really care less about some pocket change from adsense, I am blogging to get a book deal.

1. I find it very, very hard to determine which few among my plentious blogs to focus my main attention on. Some criteria, guidelines, tips, on how to decide which of my blog children to neglect, please.

2. I’m interested in the possiblity of creating my own network, beginning with my many blogs. I’m finding lots of links with information about networks, but nothing on how to start one, run one, the nuts and bolts. Please share some info about that.

My husband and I are having an argument over this– has your wife HAD the baby? I say you probably didn’t go on vacation if she was due two weeks later. He thinks he read that you had already welcomed your bundle of joy. So, which is it? And, yes, we really should find something more productive to do with our time than to argue about whether your wife is still pregnant, or not.

I have a GREAT question that HAUNTS me. There are some blogs that BOOM almost immediately. Does this hurt the chances for slower-growing blogs? What if two of those types of blogs are in my niche? Have they cornered the market forever?

And do you think these big blogs might fade, maybe just enough to let others shine—or can others shine along with them?

And do you think that big bloggers might quit blogging and move on?
And related-yet unrelated-how many (%) professional (or not) bloggers do you think WILL quit?

And I DON’T want those blogs to quit, I just wish for some fame and success. :-x

What to do / WHY does Technorati often not recognize my new blog entries? I TRY to not post more than once every thirty minutes (which is a stupid rule for gossip blogs, those are still popular, wahh).

Didn’t you have the Bloglines link in the subscribing section before? It looks like it is now replaced by the Technorai Favorites button. Is Bloglines getting less popular? I didn’t know that. (it’s my feed reader of choice).

Also – Super 7 here in Canada is $35 million – should I buy more tickets? I’m in for a 5-pack anyway :)

Can you recommend a blogging tool or software that allows visitors to upload their own photos to the blog? (It would be a moderated situation).
thanks,
NS
PS Thanks for such a fantastic resource site for blogging information

I think my conversion rate is good (but there’s a margin of error from my not being a math person). But I can always improve. Blogs are very unique with websites, whether we like it or not. They don’t have that blurb or paragraph, smack dab in the middle of the home page saying, “Welcome, this site is about!!!”

So what are blogs to do to convey the message clearer?

What are the ways to best explain the site most effectively in the shortest amount of time?

I have a question that isn’t just related to blogs… it may sound strange, but I don’t have an idea of what is considered “good” internet traffic. How many visitors a day or month means a website or blog is considered successful. Like at what point is traffic considered high enough to get outside advertisers besides google, yahoo and chikita?

Email subscriptions vs. Email Newsletters. Pros and cons of either offering email subscription to posts or creating a newsletter. I know that you could use both, but if a person was deciding between either one, what are some considerations? What is your opinion?

Do you know of any program in which a blog entry can be written and then uploaded at a certain date and time you specify, in case you went out of town but wanted to continue being able to post daily?
Also, do you ever go diving in Australia. It’s supposed to be the best there.
What’s your fav part of Australia to visit?

Here’s another question I’ve been thinking about this week: What are the pros and cons of Mac vs PC as blogging tools?

I’ve always used PCs because… I’ve always used PCs and that’s what I’m used to. But having recently got married there is now a Mac in the house (relax, it belongs to my wife.. I didn’t marry the Mac) which has sparked my curiosity. I’ve been advised that PCs are better for internet development work because most internet users have PCs – but I know you use a Mac so evidently you don’t agree.

I’ve almost given up getting some rational advice on this subject – it seems to polarize people into evangelists – but would be very interested to hear your thoughts.